Does The Secrecy Surrounding True Detective Hurt it?
We’re nearing the end of July without any major official season two reveal. Soon it will hit the limits of what we all expected, and we’ll be forced to ask ourselves, rather seriously, just how long we’ll actually have to wait. These thoughts come on the heels of Fargo’s recent renewal announcement which came with a robust outline of the second season plot.
Now, things between Fargo and True Detective aren’t exactly equal; True Detective has a single writer while Fargo has multiple. At this point, however, that doesn’t make much difference — creator Nic Pizzolatto knows what season two is all about. There is something to be said for withholding information, as it can create a certain excitement.
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It can also breed frustration and, eventually, apathy.
There are surely multiple powers at play here. Pizzolatto might not yet feel comfortable giving us a larger taste of season two, and HBO execs without a doubt play a role in that decision. With the Fargo and True Detective rivalry taking off, it’s not too farfetched to imagine that the recent detailing of Fargo’s second season was also organized by the heads of FX in an attempt to beat True Detective to the punch.
We’re in no serious danger of True Detective losing momentum because of this drought of information, but those very same expectations that are raised and toyed with after every small big of news to drip out of an interview can be quite fickle. True Detective is a big deal for HBO, and they’re going to treat it delicately. There is definitely something to not revealing anything until it’s good and ready, but it can be frustrating when the withholding feels more like a marketing strategy than anything else.